About The Eviction

Aunti Frances Moore was served eviction papers on November 19th, 2017 to evacuate her apartment of eight years in a neighborhood she has lived all of her life. The eviction court date is February 26th. This is a no-fault eviction, meaning that Auntie Frances is being evicted for no fault of her own. She pays her rent on time, she follows the rules, she is a model tenant. However, the new owners, who purchased the 3-unit building in June 2016, are attempting to push out Aunti Frances as well as the other long-term tenant, who is a Black disabled veteran. Normally, Aunti Frances and this other tenant would be protected by Oakland rent control and eviction protections under the Just Cause Ordinance. However, landlords Natalia Morphy and her parents James and Alexandra Morphy are trying to evict Aunti Francesthrough a loophole in the Just Cause Ordinance.

This is the family’s third attempt to evict Aunti Frances for no fault. They served Aunti Frances her first eviction notice the same week they purchased the building. Now they’ve hired serial evictor Daniel Bornstein to help them try to exploit this loophole and exempt Aunti Frances from any protections. Bornstein and Bornstein is a law firm notorious for quickly evicting long-term tenants in San Francisco and Oakland.

The Morphys own many additional properties throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. When they purchased this property, they knew that there were two black elders who were longtime tenants with rental protections, and they chose to buy the building anyway. They have tried to raise the rent in one of the units and have already tried to evict Aunti Frances and the other tenant through other means, and those attempts have failed.

Patterns of Displacement

We see this eviction as part of a devastating trend in which residents lose their housing because of loopholes in the law. Oakland law protects most tenants by requiring that landlords have a specific legal reason to evict them— a “just cause.” There is no such just reason to evict Aunti Frances. We believe that Aunti Frances, and all tenants, should be protected from no-fault evictions like this one.

Aunti Frances is a disabled black elder in our community and is being displaced from the only affordable housing option she has to stay in her home and the community she has lived in her whole life. As a low-income disabled senior, losing her housing will have a deeply harmful impact on Aunti Frances. She cannot simply “find another place.” She will be displaced far from Oakland and her networks of support and care, and the impact on her health could be catastrophic.

We will not allow the Morphys to profit off of displacement.

Join us in demanding that Natalia Morphy and her parents cease this unethical eviction proceeding and let Aunti Frances stay in her home. We implore the Morphys to answer Aunti Frances’ invitation to support and join the North Oakland community by dropping these eviction proceedings.